12/17 Season Three, Episode 16: The Triumvirate-Scarecrow and Mrs King

So where were we?
Francine had just interrupted Lee and Amanda’s cosy hideout (or game of hearts) to replace Lee in keeping watch on Amanda, because Billy wants Lee back at IFF.
Reluctant Lee walks out to his Corvette, gets in and drives away.Lee: You’re coming in loud and clear. I thought the phone lines were messed up?Billy(in his office): There’s nothing wrong with our phones.Lee: That’s funny. Francine said she could barely understand you.[I love how Lee is holding the phone to his ear while driving.. in this day and age – Lee would be breaking the law!! well.. at least in my neck of the woods – very naughty! Both hands on the wheel Lee!! but then.. well … it is urgent and about keeping Amanda safe.. soooo.. go ahead! ]Billy: What? What’s going on, Lee? Why aren’t you with Amanda?Lee: She’s with Francine. Look, what’s up?[Eh? Is it just me or is Lee a bit slow on the uptake here? What’s up? Billy just asked you why you aren’t with Amanda- helloooo?!! Hmm.. I’m going to blame the editors for trying to make Lee look a bit dim – their jealous ]Billy: Well, you tell me–I haven’t spoken to Francine all afternoon.Lee: Well, someone who sounded just like you did… someone who knew our… our recognition codes… [Bing! the penny drops! Gee.. just like that dude who stopped by Amanda’s to pick up the cheque!]…Billy, I’m gonna go back there.Billy: You call their room. I’ll take care of that phone call from here. [take care of what phone call? anyone?]Lee puts the Corvette into a snazzy screechy super heroic U-turn and starts driving back to the hotel,..[Oh my.. swoony very worried mode!]…then Lee picks up his car phone again.…Jepard, wearing black clothing, is outside the hotel behind a hedge….Uh oh.. this can’t be good!
He carries a gun and is wearing a crossbow …He starts scaling a mesh fence.
I get why Jepard would know Amanda is being hidden in this building.. but how would he know what floor Amanda is on? oh wait… the only floor with the lights on maybe? lol!

Cut to Francine and Amanda inside the suite in the hotel room. Francine ‘s on the phone..Lee(off screen): Francine, I just talked to Billy. He never called you.Francine: They’re trying to shake us off Amanda.[yeaahhhhh don’t be offended Francine.. because the implication here is that Lee would have been better at protecting Amanda than Francine haaaa– so they tried to get him out of the way! It seems rather dumb to me- and risks the surprise element giving them a clue something is about to happen.. but.. I’ll hold this thought for now]Lee: All right, all right. Now you just sit tight. I’m on my way.Francine:OK.Amanda: What’s going on?Francine:Nothing good. I’m gonna call security—have ‘em send up a guard.She picks up the phone and starts dialling.Jepard is climbing up the side of the building, using a rope. Francine is waiting for security to pick up her call..Jepard continues climbing. The Corvette screeches to a halt in front of the hotel. Lee sprints through the door and into the hotel. Jepard looks to have arrived on that balcony to Amanda’s room.. you know.. the only one in the hotel?! Lee runs around the side of the hotel, pulls off his jacket and dropping it as he keeps running, then pulls out his gun.

In the suite..Francine:Something’s wrong. Nobody’s answering.[Why is no one answering? Doesn’t seem to me like Jepard would have had time to go inside the foyer and shoot security then get back outside to scale the building.. anyone? help?]Yep, Jepard is on the balcony immediately outside the suite.
Yeahhh… that super convenient balcony for the baddie to get ready to attack from. Gee what a shame they hid Amanda in the one room with a balcony! whahahaahaaaHe lifts his gun and starts aiming it towards the door.[Umm.. it looks like the door to the balcony is wide open?!]
Below, in the garden, Lee aims at Jepard and fires.Jepard twists and rolls onto the bed in the suite.[This must be one of those magic doors that opens both out and in!]
Francineslams the phone down and raises her gun.Francine:Get down, Amanda…(Francine takes cover behind the sofa and shoots.. but misses Jepard who’s also taken cover…)…Amanda, get the backup car; get it started. I’ll be right there.[Really? Let Amanda go alone?! Kinda makes me wonder if this was the back up plan, why didn’t two people guard Amanda.
Aie… it’s times like this I think Amanda should have been given some kind of weapon to defend herself! Then again, given all the improvised weapons Amanda has used in the past (Brilliantly identified by Jestress HERE) maybe they thought she wouldn’t need any! ]Amanda leaves the room.
[Kudos to Amanda for how quickly she can unlock that chain and open the door while in the firing line!
LOL at how for that moment no one chooses to shoot – lol Francine doesn’t even give her any cover.. the baddie is so polite! thanks Baddie!]
Francine aims at Jepard and shoots again, she misses- again!
Amanda runs down the stairs.
[In heels! whooo danger danger!]Francine runs towards the door and Jepard shoots at her,..
[Seems she can’t make it through the door as quickly as Amanda did ]Uh oh – Francine is hit by a bullet as she reaches the doorway.
Amanda pushes the elevator “down” button several times, and then gets in. Francine struggles out of the room and collapses on her bottom, revealing a bleeding gunshot wound on her thigh,..Francine struggles to get up and heads into another room before Jepard can get to the hallway to finish her off…

I’m going to need to pause it here for the moment guys.. we’ll pick up right where we paused!

Is it naughty of me to enjoy that Francine took a bullet for Amanda?! tee heee..

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this post and the ep so far Thanks for Reading!

41 responses to “12/17 Season Three, Episode 16: The Triumvirate-Scarecrow and Mrs King”

Wow that’s a pretty gruesome bullet wound for SMK. Tame maybe by modern standards but quite graphic for this show. Kudos to Francine for putting her life on the line for Amanda. Just when you thought Francine was totally unprofessional so pulls this one out of the bag.

I find it laughable that no one has considered there is a mole within the agency. Cheques being drawn on old Agency accounts might have been a bit of a giveaway. Amanda didn’t stand a chance at the safe house especially with having the only room with a balcony 😉 I mean what are the odds a cold blooded kill would try and use that as a means into the room

So glad they didn’t use a cabin in the woods for a safehouse — no elevator! Very glad they didn’t use that script. Sounds more like the A-Team than SMK. This would have given the whole ep a very different and, in my mind, undesirable “feel”.

Not sure it would take too long to take care of the guard if Jepard was positioned near the lobby, which he would have been to witness Francine arriving and Lee leaving. A quick shot to the unsuspecting guard, no need to move him if he’s behind a desk or whatever, particular if no one is really expected to come and go. Probably a piece of cake for a pro like Jepard, and also, sadly, probably a pleasurable side-task for him.

Any chance Francine could have been on her way to a date or dinner when she was called to replace Lee?

White does seem to be the color of choice when there is blood to be showcased. I’m thinking of Lee in 3 Faces of Emily (when the whole point was to showcase the blood for the baddie), and I think in The Long Christmas Eve Lee was wearing a white-ish pullover over a green shirt. (Going by memory with the usual disclaimers.)

Surely a safer, more practical and considerably less costly option for the Agency would be to use ordinary houses (with in-built extra security that is not obvious to the casual observer) as “safe houses”. To account for different people coming and going, they could be known in the neighbourhood as holiday homes – self-contained accommodation for people visiting the area. When I travel I much prefer a self-contained holiday home to a hotel or motel, and they are usually much cheaper too.
Anyway, the point is, the neighbours wouldn’t get suspicious if different people stayed there for a day, week, month, whatever.
Also, in a neighbourhood there are lots of witnesses, so harder for the bad guys to carry out their nefarious deeds without the risk of witnesses.
Also, for the purposes of this scene, I think it would have been a good vibe for L&A to be staying together in a “normal” home. It would be interesting to see how they have progressed in this regard from their S1 & 2 forays into “normal” territory. 😉

I love Francine in this scene. We get to see her at her spy best. I do not think she is in the same class as Lee, hence the reason she is in the office more and is Billy’s 2nd in charge, but she still has to be an operative and use her weapon. I think the baddies know Lee is the top agent and so any other agent would theoretically be better, male or female.

I love that Francine goes right into business mode and makes a quick decision to call for another guard. She immediately knows something is up and she gets to it. She knows she is Amanda’s last line of defense right now and she is taking that job very seriously – regardless of how she thinks or feels about Amanda, she is going to do all that she can to protect her.

Francine’s command to Amanda to get to the back up car doesn’t bother me either. She knows Jeppard has a gun and he is a top assassin in the world. So I think Francine’s plan is to keep Jeppard at bay so she can get out of the room and join Amanda. Given that she may lose in hand-to-hand combat (in her heels and silk pjs – too bad the happy hooker number wouldn’t work here – lol) she just wants to stay alive long enough to get Amanda safely away. Seriously, I think Francine’s skills are in getting people to talk by playing the ditzy blond. She’s very smart, but I don’t think that hand-to-hand combat and big weapons are her forte.

So now we know why Francine needed to have on white pants – it makes for a great contrast with the blood! Holy Crap, Francine’s been shot – in defense of Amanda! Say what you will about Francine (and I’ve made a few narky comments myself), but she just took a hit because of Amanda. I love that this happens. Lee’s never had to take a bullet for her, has he? Not that I think he wouldn’t, I’m sure he would, but this is narky Francine we’re talking about who only just a few episodes ago was making fun of her and putting her down. I think it’s pretty awesome. This scene is what makes me like and respect Francine. I do like to put her down, but at heart, I’m a Francine fan.

I’m just glad she didn’t have to run in this scene because she does run like a girl – doh!

Timing does seem to be an issue here. Jepard would have to have waited for Lee to leave in order to take out the guards and then scale the building to get to the balcony. Not sure he’s that fast.

Okay, maybe this is nit picky or a bit of a snark, Amanda’s shooting skills or lack thereof came up in OTL. Francine congratulated Amanda for her shooting, maybe Francine should take some lessons from Amanda. Just a thought.

There’s a bit of a hole in this episode with the whole fact that they know there’s a problem within the Agency and they keep being surprised and caught off guard when something happens. While I don’t like what was in the earlier script they could have kept the cabin as a safe house as it might have been easier to defend. Also, maybe Francine could have been a bit more out of the loop earlier in the episode and then accidentally spilled the beans as to where Amanda was. She’s had loose lips before. Or maybe one of those agents who had to wait in line, went rogue when Lee helped Amanda and they got stuck waiting forever and then was shorted on their check. Oh well, I’m willing to overlook some of these glitches as the episode has been so wonderful to Lee and Amanda and their progression towards each other.

While Lee and Francine are on the phone, we see Amanda sitting at the table. Does this mean she and Francine were playing cards before Lee called? I watched this episode about a month ago and I don’t remember if we saw the table where Amanda’s sitting. She could have picked up her magazine while they were on the phone, waiting for Francine to come back and join her. (Obviously, before they knew what Lee had found out). If they were, it’s nice to see them being social.

I can’t believe they’d go through such measures to protect Amanda and have it be so easy for Jepard to access. They might as well put a ladder there for him to climb up.

I think the only parts of SMK that are well thought out are the parts where KJ and BB changed what was in the script concerning the Lee and Amanda relationship developments. Fortunately, tat is why I watch the show. The part that is brilliant in this scene is the blood on Francine’s purest white outfit and the way Amanda so quickly does what she needs to do. The rest of this scene I just quickly go through. Sorry.
Although I like what Ruth wrote about Francine and I love how Cindy put Billy’s question to Lee in the proper light 😉

I don’t know why security doesn’t answer — I agree that there doesn’t seem to be time for Jepard to have done anything to them. I also don’t get what the whole plan with the “backup car” was supposed to be, but I checked in the script and there’s a lot about this episode VERY different from what’s written there. To recap:

Lee shoots Jepard at the 60’s store, and Jepard winds up in the hospital.

The “safe house” is a small, uncomfortable cabin in the woods.

After making the Lee/Francine switch, the cabin is attacked by all three of the Triumvirate. There’s a flaming grenade involved, lots of shooting, an exploding cabin, and Webster sporting a submachine gun.

Francine tells Amanda to leave by a trapdoor which will take her down a tunnel to the highway, where the backup car is. At least this explains why there was a backup car. It makes a bit more sense here than having it at the Cumberland, but the whole rest of the scene is so OTT that I can see why they toned it down.

The preceding scene turned out quite differently as well, so I will go back to that post and make a note of it there.

Thanks sooooo much for sharing this with us happycamper!!! I’ve given up looking at scripts because I’m too time poor and have to prioritise. So please – everyone and anyone if you find anything fabulous or interesting in the scripts please share them with us as Happy camper has kindly done here 🙂

Happy camper – we salute you!

now.. about the old script – they’ve gone and extended out the last act huh.. which.. at this point of the walk we can’t talk about yet – doh! I’ll come back to this (hopefully!)

What’s with the crossbow? I guess it’s silent and can be fired from a distance… unlike a gun, and you need to get close to your victim to do the ol’ knifey-knifey. Okay, I’ve answered my own question.
That’s a reasonably realistic bullet wound on Francine – a first for SMK? Have we seen much blood in SMK? Mostly when people get shot, or knifed, or are otherwise dispatched on SMK they just fall down in a tidy – and very clean – heap.
I’m not offended that the bad guys thought Francine would be less of an obstacle than Lee.. they are bad guys after-all, they’re not supposed to be PC or sensitive new-age thinkers. Like it or not, a woman is less physically strong and I imagine Jepard thought if it came to hand-to-hand combat he would have a lot better chance of dispatching Francine than Lee. (Although he obviously hasn’t seen “Mancine” in action 😉 ).

Oh and another thing – I think I said in the post I would come back to it – the whole Lee being called away, Francine watching Amanda and the baddie trying to shake them off Amanda thing:
My comments were tongue in cheek about Francine’s abilities. trying to make sense of why the baddies have gone about it this way..
But I wouldn’t want anyone to misunderstand – I can totally see she is a highly competent agent.
For me it’s a contrived chain of events that don’t make sense as they play out – but as this sequence is not yet fully walked through I’ll hold off making more comments on it for now – hmm maybe in a future post I will have come back to it after all – can’t remember!
Okay.. bye!

I continue to be bemused that Francine is still in this outfit after all these hours especially since we are long past Labor Day and way too early for Memorial Day but it does do a beautiful job of showing off the blood so kudos for that, Ms. Desmond.

That outfit seems more like evening wear than work attire, even for Francine. And she’s still wearing it, complete with high heels that make it very difficult to run, for what should probably be considered a field assignment. No wonder Jepard wanted to deal with her rather than Lee — those heels alone make all the difference in the world.

Billy: What? What’s going on, Lee? Why aren’t you with Amanda?
And the rest of us have been asking that questions for almost 3 years now. 😉
Ok, yes, Lee is a little slow on the uptake here, but absolutely love how Billy quickly assesses the seriousness of the situation. I guess that is why he is the Boss. And Francine doesn’t hesitate – she goes into full protection mode despite her ambivalent feelings towards Amanda. I do love seeing Francine in full agent mode. I will ignore the plot and prop inconsistencies. 🙂

Yes, I love this scene with Francine. This is where my opinion of her completely changes. From the moment she softly says to Lee on the phone “They’re trying to shake us off of Amanda,” she has joined Team Protect Amanda. This could be construed as downplaying Amanda yet again by Francine, but she immediately barks out orders as a senior agent would and Amanda promptly obeys and carries out her part of the assignment, so I see it as more of a working relationship between them. And she takes a bullet for Amanda as a willing act to protect her partner. I have always wanted to like Francine and now I feel free to do so.

Love this ruth!! I agree- Francine is a total professional here – Francine has no trouble showing authority 🙂
Yes I think they’ve had a working relationship for quite a while now.. maybe since life of the party.. but we get to see the stark reality here of what being ‘the’ agent who must protect Amanda and put her safety first is all about. Francine is a true professional and compartmentalises her personal feelings toward Amanda from her professional responsibilities.

I think she has always done that.. right from the start – even when she was looking down her nose (nose job!) at Amanda – she was a trained agent who worked to keep people like Amanda safe from the bad guys..

Yes I agree – I like Francine more for seeing this moment too! 🙂

I want to see the scene where Amanda comes and acts as Francine’s bluebell whahahaahaa.. then.. Francine wakes up in terror and realises it is just a drug induced hallucination 😉 whahahaaa.. then she goes back to eating her chocolate 🙂

did you?! Oh cool!!! can you post a link to it on Neds in the fan fic thread? I will get to fan fic one day I promise!! and I’ll be heading straight to that thread on Neds to guide me to all the ones people have enjoyed the most.
I just find with keeping up with the walk my smk time is already taken up.. fan fic is something I am hoarding away for future enjoyment 🙂

I wholeheartedly agree, ruthp221! I wrote similar thoughts in my comment before I read what everyone else had to say. This scene is Francine at her best, IMO. I could laugh at the great one-liners Francine always got to deliver to Amanda, but I couldn’t really like her. This scene gives me permission and even lets me raise her up a few notches. I love that they have Francine get shot. I think she is the most misunderstood character on SMK, but we’ll get to discuss all that in depth in the future!

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